Sunday 30 September 2007

Peter and the Wolf

Hi,
I just thought you may like to hear a little story; I smiled and I think you will too, and I hope Peter will not be too embarassed.

Anyway; I was chatting to Peter Gibbs after the last round of the Charity quickplay event recently. Peter was our Board 1 for the Wigston2 team (I was playing on Board 4). We had just played Birstall, led by GM Mark Hebben, and had been well beaten 3-1.

"What was it like playing Mark Hebben?", I asked; "The same feeling as being run over by a steamroller" was the reply. Dimly aware of Peter's illustrious past, I asked "When did you last play a grandmaster?"
"Oh, that guy will the Bc4 move in the Sicilian - what was his name - aah yes, Velimirovic" was the reply(!). There was a pause. "But I won that one" came the afterthought (!!).

Phil.


The LRCA Charity and Prize Giving Event - Report

Hi,

I just want to tell everyone about the LRCA annual prize giving event a couple of Thursdays ago (20th September), held this year at the Spinney Hill WMC.

I went up to collect the Divison 1 winners trophy and Phil Watkinson collected the Chapman Cup on behalf of the Wigston 2 team. Then the charity quickplay took place, with 15 teams of 4 players with 4 rounds of 30minute (15 minutes per player) chess.

The Quickplay event was very tight, and going into the last round the score stood:

 Birstall  9.0 (out of a maximum of 12)
Wigston2 9.0
Wigston1 8.5
Shepshed 8.5

Birstall (a very strong team lead by Mark Hebben) were then due to play Wigston2 and Wigston1 played Shepshed. We went all out for it and beat Shepshed 4-0 and Wigston2 managed to get a point out of Birstall's bottom board Graham Booley, thus giving us the tournament by half a point!

We should not have won if there was any justice in the world, since, in the third round, I was utterly lost against Graham Booley (really, really lost! ) but he went wrong and allowed me to get an endgame that should have been a draw - but with quite a bit of play in it. I offered a draw and, after a couple of minutes thought, he accepted. He really shouldn't have, because he still had 3 minutes left and I had 17 seconds!

I think the psychological blow of frittering away a win affected his judgement! Our individual scores:
Martin Burrows: 1 win, 2 draws and a loss to Hebbo
Alan Byron: 4 wins
Walter Dehnen: 3 wins and a draw
Andy Morley: 2 wins and 2 draws

So we won by half a point, and so retain the Charity Board. It was a very good evening, well run in an excellent venue, and enjoyed by all.

Regards,
Andy.

Friday 28 September 2007

LEAGUE MATCH RESULTS - WEEK 1

DIVISION 2 - Wigston 3 beat a strong Loughborough 2
 
27-Sep-07 v. Loughboro 2(H)
1. I. Dodds 0.5 A. Jex 0.5
2. P. Harlow 1 J. Dawkins 0
3. S. Smith 0 J. Glover 1
4. P. Watkinson 1 O. Hardy 0
5. A. Pike 1 J. Beauquel 0
3.5 1.5
 
DIVISION 4 - Wigston 6 caused an upset by Beating Wigston 5
 
27-Sep-07 v. Wigston 5 (H)
1. F. Hulford 0 R. Townsend 1
2. P. Winterton 1 B. Shuter 0
3. C. Eastlake 1 D. White 0
4. P. Turland 1 P. Gray 0
3 1
 
Neil
 

Friday 21 September 2007

NEW SEASON

LEAGUE MATCHES START NEXT WEEK
 
I now have League Handbooks for all members.
 
The first matches on 27 September at the club are:
 
W3 v. Loughborough 2 in Division 2 (a repeat of the Chapman Cup Final!)
 
W5 v. W6 in Division 4
 
Welcome to new member Peter Turland who will be playing in my W6 team.
 
Neil

Friday 14 September 2007

A good night in Loughborough

The finals of the Chapman Cup took place last night between Loughborough 2 and Wigston 2. It was going to be our toughest match yet in the competition and we had used up all our luck in the first rounds against Loughboro' 1 and Birstall 1.
We decided to take the team picture before the match commenced, since we reckoned we would be looking too battered and bruised afterwards:





And this is what then happened:

1. John Dawkins (142) 0-1 Phil Watkinson (127)
2. John Glover (135) ½-½ Stephen Smith (124)
3. Otto Hardy (131) 0-1 Andrew Pike (115)
4. Terry Adcock (109) ½-½ Barrie Cooper (111)
Team Bonus 0-½
-----------------------------------------------
Total 1-3½

I am so proud of the team - we all had the right attitude and motivation and were going to provide as much resistance to our opponents as possible whatever the outcome.

This perservance paid off with excellent results - Andrew, with positive play, gave Otto too many problems to solve; Stephen defended for a long time in the kinght and pawn ending with four knights (although the position was so complicated I'm sure I counted five knights on the board at one time); Barrie agreed a draw in an equal game but where he had all the chances. My opponent allowed me a kingside hack attack in all the best traditions of the Grunfeld Exchange, which, of course, failed but he had used up so much time that he mucked up the resulting drawn endgame.

We therefore won the match even without the handicap bonus (the team were out graded by 40 points).


The award ceremony will take place next Thursday at the Association prize giving event at Spinney Hill. We will get Andrew to comb his hair and I will try not to look like I have a broom handle up my a**e.


Cheers,Phil.